Exalted with Ironforge
by Kirishtu
Summary: When all that is familiar is about to be erased yet again, a young Spiderbite is introduced to the concept of trust. Fifth in the Exalted series.


Originally posted on aff 2011-07-02

Hulfdan Blackbeard was many things. He was an assassin, he was a spy, he was a drinker (like any self-respecting dwarf should be), he was a smoker (again, what self-respecting dwarf didn't like his pipe?), and he was a teacher. It was this last thing that was giving him quite the headache today, as he stared at his most promising student in years make a drunken fool of himself yet again in Tinkertown. Hulfdan rubbed his thick beard as he stared at young Darius, more commonly known by the moniker Spiderbite. Hulfdan himself had given the now-eighteen year old that nickname when he'd first met the boy in the streets of Ironforge. He hadn't quite been expecting to be involved in a chase between the youngster and his antagonists, but it had given him insight into the abilities, and talents, the young Darius had possessed.

That day had been like any other. Hulfdan hadn't woken up that morning expecting anything exciting to happen. After all, the war had just recently ended, and people were trying to get back into their normal routines, to get along with new wounds and missing people, and Hulfdan knew he hadn't been the only one to imbibe copious amounts of alcohol to chase the nightmares away. So he'd been walking off a migraine when what should run by but a human boy. A one-armed, one-eyed human boy being chased by youngsters half his size and twice as brawny. Hulfdan watched in utter amazement as that human expertly dodged around innocent bystanders, hit the wall of a building running and scaled it without missing a beat, then continue across the rooftops as nimble as a cat while his pursuit was stuck on the ground. It wasn't but an hour later that Hulfdan sought out that boy and learned enough about him to know the boy would be his prize pupil. He also learned enough to know the boy would need some special handling, as he seemed focused on giving himself cirrhosis of the liver, even at twelve. That first meeting between Hulfdan and young Darius had been when Hulfdan had called Darius 'Spiderbite' because the boy's tongue had been as venomous as a black widow's bite.

"Ye be almost done there, boy?" Hulfdan called to Spider. "I don' have time tae be wastin' on yer sorry ass today."

Spider, eighteen years old and not yet feeling it, looked up at his teacher with what could be considered a shit-eating grin of absolute indifference. "Yet yer still standin' here, ain't ye?" The teenager rotated his metal shoulder and flexed the hand attached to the end of the false limb. He staggered only slightly, which confirmed for Hulfdan Spider's drunken status. So Hulfdan turned to walk away.

As he expected, Spiderbite quickly caught up to him, no longer smiling and instead looking a little confused or insecure. Hulfdan was pretty sure it was the former. They were returning from Stormwind, after completing a small task that involved permanently shutting the mouth of a certain person. Hulfdan had sat back on purpose, observing his young apprentice to give him time to answer one question, and that question had been answered beyond a shadow of a doubt. Spiderbite was ready to strike out on his own. Hulfdan had been a little distant with the teen the entire time, judging to see if Spider's emotions and feelings had caught up with his skills with a knife. While still a drunken moron at times, Hulfdan had to admit between the bottle and the pipe, Spider could survive on his own if he had to. So, Hulfdan decided, it was time.

He brought Spider out of Tinkertown and to the residential area of Ironforge. The boy relaxed the more the familiar made itself present, but he still gave his teacher the odd glance now and then. Hulfdan entered the house he shared currently with the teen, and wondered if there would be an absent feel when Spider was gone. He shook his head. Here ye go, ye old fool. Yer gettin' attached. But he knew Spider had done the same. The teenager had lived with him for six years, and there was a measure of safety in what Hulfdan offered him. Now, Hulfdan was going to be taking that measure away.

When he was certain Spider had followed him into his bedroom, he turned to regard his finest, most brilliant student. The teen's eye watched him with an understanding Hulfdan hadn't been quite confident Spider would have. The young man was leaning up against the wall, stretched languidly as though he wasn't the tense, neurotic mess he really was. Hulfdan nodded slowly. "I've taught ye all I know."

"And?"

"Yer tae go tae Ravenholdt. Finish yer trainin'."

There was a look of panic in Spider's eye, there and gone. "So yer kickin' me out?"

"I'm sayin' I got no more tae teach ye. Yer ready tae get back out in that big ol' scary world o' yers."

More panic, there and hidden under years of training, scars, and alcoholism. "And if I don' want tae go?"

"I be kickin' ye out anyway. Tired o' trippin' over empty steins and yer fool ass 'cause ye ain't got the decency tae give me my fair share o' the drink."

Spider's lips twitched in a smirk. "An' here I was thinkin' yer reasons were more dire."

"Don' think I can't still box yer ears, boy." Hulfdan turned his back to Spider for a mere second and suddenly the dwarf found himself in the shadow of the young man. The nervousness was back in Spider's eye as he regarded the short man and Hulfdan, always the patient man, simply waited.

What happened next the rogue trainer hadn't quite been expecting. Suddenly, Spider was leaning down, flesh hand tangled in Blackbeard's beard, and then Hulfdan felt the harsh touch of his student's lips on his own. After a moment that seemed to last a lifetime, Spider drew back enough to stare down at the older man. Hulfdan rubbed his lips. "Ye don' wanna be doin' this, boy."

Spider's expression said otherwise. His false hand twitched against his thigh. Hulfdan shook his head and studied the human youth above him for a moment. No doubt Spider knew exactly what he was doing. He often did, even if he wasn't aware of it later due to a hangover. Hulfdan warred with himself for a long minute. Then he sighed. "I guess I'd better teach ye, ere yer liable to get yerself in a situation."

Spider's grin didn't irritate Hulfdan as much as he thought it would. The dwarf reached up and grabbed the teen by his hair, hauling him down quickly enough to cause Spider to gasp. That opportunity was not wasted; Hulfdan crushed their mouths together and forced his tongue inside Spider's mouth. The youth tasted of tobacco and ale. Before Spider could catch Hulfdan within an embrace, the dwarf expertly grabbed the young man's false arm and immobilized it by disengaging a single bolt in the elbow, then pushed the teenager onto the bed. Spider's body filled the bed, which was more than enough for a dwarf of Hulfdan's size but too small for a human. Hulfdan shook his head and worked himself between Spider's legs.

There was no fear or uncertainty in the teen's eyes now. No, he knew exactly what he wanted and that he was going to get what he wanted. Hulfdan cared for Spider - he had practically raised the teenager from a whelp hiding at the slightest clink of plate armor to a professional spy and killer - and so he would give him what he needed. Hulfdan slid his hands beneath Spider's tunic and encountered bare skin. The teen arched and squirmed, but he completely trusted the dwarf. And Hulfdan continued on in the way he'd always done - he taught the lesson, hands on.

He removed Spider's tunic, revealing pale skin marred by scars. The worst of which was the scar on his left shoulder, where his flesh and bone arm once had been. Hulfdan didn't know the particulars, but he knew the teen's past well enough to know that it had been violent. He ran his fingers lightly over that scar before he trailed them down, his other hand at Spider's hips both to brace himself and keep his student still. Hulfdan used his index finger and thumb to encircle Spider's nipple and tease it until it became a rosy nub. Already, the teen's breathing had increased and there was a noticeable bulge growing in his pants. Hulfdan ignored that for now and leaned forward as far as he could, replacing his fingers with his teeth and tongue. Spider arched with a muffled cry and tangled the fingers of his flesh hand in Hulfdan's hair, pulling sharply. It almost made Hulfdan stop, but then Spider's mouth opened and he mewled. Hulfdan chuckled and continued to worry that rosy nub with his teeth and tongue, while his hands finally busied themselves with Spider's belt and breeches.

Hulfdan lazily went about his task, getting a sense of how fast to go based on his student's noises. His hand finally wrapped around Spider's half-hard shaft and he began to stroke the hardening flesh. It soon stood straight in his hands, hot and heavy. Spider's eye was closed, his mouth open, and Hulfdan closed his fist around Spider's cock, stroking the flesh in tight, slow motions. Spider whimpered and twitched, but Hulfdan kept him still. The dwarf rogue dug around in one of the pouches in his belt for a minute before he discarded the belt entirely.

"Roll over," Hulfdan ordered, his voice husky with his own arousal. It took a moment for Spider to obey, but he was soon lying on his stomach, watching the dwarf over his shoulder. Hulfdan took precious few minutes to discard the remainder of his clothing, then forced Spider up onto his knees.

"What're ye doin'?" Spider asked as Hulfdan tore the stopper off a healing potion with his teeth.

"I be makin' sure ye don' bleed like a virgin." Hulfdan said with a slight grin. "Ye need to be prepared."

"Why?"

"Ye'll understand in a minute, and when yer where I am, ye'll need tae remember it."

Spider snorted. "Like I'll ever be where ye are."

Hulfdan poured a generous amount of potion into his palm. "Never say never, boy. Ye do, and it's bound tae happen tae ye." He coated his fingers with the viscous fluid, then set two digits against that tight pucker of flesh between Spider's legs.

He pushed them inside that tight, hot passage, then withdrew them only to push them back inside. Spider gasped and clutched the blankets beneath him, his spine curving as Blackbeard continued to push open that tight ring of muscle. Just when Spider was ready to threaten his teacher with a horrible, if anatomically impossible, feat of death, he felt Hulfdan's heat against his backside and the pressure of something far larger and thicker than fingers against that opened hole. He was glad Hulfdan didn't ask him if he was sure. He was glad the dwarf hesitated only a moment, asking him silently if he was ready. He was glad Hulfdan understood his needs well enough to let him get what Spider needed. Spider shifted his hips, and then suddenly, in one sharp thrust, Hulfdan was buried to the balls in Spider's ass. The rhythm that followed was hard and sharp. The headboard of the bed crashed against the wall time and time again, and Spider had to bite into the pillows to keep his noises from becoming too loud though the only sound that seemed to cover his moans and mewls was Hulfdan's grunting and groaning. Spider could feel the head of Hulfdan's cock striking something deep inside him over and over, causing his cock to jump and release little white droplets and his muscles to quiver and spasm and draw tighter. Hulfdan's breathing increased, his thrusts growing harder and harder as Spider's passage became tighter and tighter.

And then, suddenly it seemed, Spider's back was arching and there was nothing he could do to muffle his scream as he came. Three hard, bruising thrusts later, Spider felt his bowels fill with something fluidy and hot. Hulfdan slowly pulled out of Spider and knelt staring at the teen's stretched, reddened hole as white fluid dripped down his thighs. Spider slowly stretched out on the bed that was too small for him and Hulfdan settled down beside him.

"There's a gryphon set tae take ye to Ravenholdt." Hulfdan said softly. "Ye can leave in the mornin'."

"Aye," Spider replied, voice tainted with sleep.

Hulfdan closed his eyes. When he opened them, he wasn't surprised to find himself alone, nor to find most if not all of Spider's belongings gone. The dwarf rogue simply sat at the table in his dining room, wearing a small smile on his face as he stared at the large stein of ale and the note propped up against it.

Now we're even, as far as ale is concerned.

"Good luck tae ye, Darius." Hulfdan said as he took a long swig.


End file.
